Leadership and Learning

Global Leadership
Working with global, regional, national and sub-national partners, MCHIP:

Provides practical, field-oriented technical analysis and support;

Shares information and best practices in the field of immunization with countries and partners; and

Aims to strengthen health systems by building local capacity to offer effective and sustainable vaccination services.

MCHIP also provides technical support to routine immunization (RI) systems to sustain mortality reduction gains achieved through campaigns and to serve as a platform for effective introduction of new, lifesaving vaccines.

The Program works closely with international organizations and links its country programming to important global and regional initiatives, such as the GAVI Alliance, WHO/UNICEF Global Immunization Vision and Strategy, Decade of Vaccines, Global Vaccine Action Plan, Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Measles Initiative, and the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Identifying and Prioritizing New Preventive Vaccines for Development.

How does MCHIP Immunization address equity and community?
MCHIP focuses on strengthening routine immunization (RI) services at national and sub-national levels to identify and reach the unreached. MCHIP works with countries to identify and prioritize low-performing populations and operationalize the Reaching Every District (RED) approach. This approach involves the following five components:

Planning and management of resources;

Reaching the target populations to improve access to and use of services through a mix of service delivery strategies;

Linking services with the community to ensure health services are meeting their needs;

Supportive supervision and follow-up; and

Monitoring and use of data for action.

Coverage disparities also continue within countries, with few countries reaching 80% or higher coverage in all districts. To prevent outbreaks, consistently high coverage is needed everywhere year after year. Increasingly, vaccination programs are aiming to reach underserved and marginalized groups to improve access and equity.

How does MCHIP Immunization address scale?
As a population-based intervention that aims to operate at scale, an immunization program delivers immunization services through a combination of fixed and outreach strategies to reach the population with traditional and newer vaccines. MCHIP assists more than a dozen countries in planning, managing and monitoring services to sustainably reach the entire population, with a special focus on targeting the underserved population to close the equity gap. The Program is also exploring how best to link immunization services with the delivery of other interventions and with shared program functions such as monitoring and evaluation. MCHIP provides technical support to countries as they prepare for the introduction of new (and underutilized) lifesaving vaccines. This includes assisting with introduction plans, applications to the GAVI Alliance, preparations for vaccine introduction, and monitoring and post-introduction evaluation.

How does MCHIP Immunization address quality?
Success in sustaining disease control or eradication requires matched efforts in supporting the routine immunization system as an integral part of the overall health system. This is MCHIP’s niche. To provide potent vaccines in a timely and safe manner year after year to all eligible population groups, MCHIP provides technical support to ensure that the routine immunization system is functional, staff are supervised, operational and programmatic needs are supported place and funded.